Pogačar crashes as Abrahamsen wins Stage 11 of Tour de France after 155-kilometer breakaway

TOULOUSE, France (AP) — Tour de France favorite Tadej Pogačar crashed near the finish while Norwegian rider Jonas Abrahamsen won the 11th stage on Wednesday.

Pogačar, the three-time champion, crashed with 3.9 kilometers remaining after hitting the wheel of Tobias Johannessen in front. His rivals for the general classification slowed down so he could get back on his bike and rejoin them. Pogačar, who was able to reattach the chain on his otherwise undamaged bike, thanked them for waiting.

“All good, all good,” Pogačar said over the UAE Team Emirates XRG radio. “Respect to the peloton, respect to everybody.”

Johannessen apologized as he felt responsible.

“I think the whole peloton moved to the right and I just followed the movement of Matteo Jorgenson and some other guys. I think Pogačar was on the radio so we just bumped into each other and I think it’s something that happens,” Johannessen said. “But I really didn’t want him to crash and I don’t think any other guy in the peloton wants Pogačar to go down. We just stopped and waited in the group straight away and I hope he’s fine.”

Abrahamsen, who attacked from the start, beat Swiss rider Mauro Schmid in a photo finish.

A pro-Palestinian protester did not distract either rider as they sprinted for the finish, racing each other at the end after they'd worked together to stay ahead of Dutch rider Mathieu van der Poel's late push to catch them.

It was Abrahamsen’s first stage win at the Tour and the first in this race for his team, Uno-X Mobility.

The Norwegian rider wasn't sure he'd even be racing at the Tour when he broke his collarbone in a crash at the Tour of Belgium last month.

“I was crying in the hospital because I (thought) I was not riding Tour de France,” the 29-year-old Abrahamsen said. “But the day after I was on the home trainer and hope I can go to Tour de France and every day I did everything I could to come back and here I’m standing in Tour de France, to win a stage is amazing.”

Van der Poel dropped his head and slouched on his bike as he finished 7 seconds behind in third, while the GC group including Pogačar and yellow jersey-holder Ben Healy finished 3:28 back.

Healy, only the fourth Irish rider ever to hold the yellow jersey, still leads by 29 seconds from Pogačar.

After the first rest day on Tuesday, Wednesday’s stage was a 156.8-kilometer loop from Toulouse back to the southern “Pink City” with views of the Pyrenees. It was expected to suit the sprinters, though there was a sting in the tail with a 20% incline on the Côte de Pech David before the finish.

Abrahamsen struck with 155 kilometers to go and was joined by Schmid and Davide Ballerini, prompting persistent attacks from the likes of Van der Poel, Wout van Aert and Victor Campenaerts. Ultimately all their efforts were in vain.

“It’s a crazy stage, guys,” the Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale team riders were told over their radios, “A crazy stage. Stay focused.”

The Tour starts tackling the Pyrenees on Stage 12, a 180.6-kilometer hike from Auch to Hautacam, with the final 45 kilometers sure to be a grueling challenge — first at the Col du Soulor, a 11.9-kilometer climb with a 7.3% incline, before an even steeper incline at Col des Bordères. The stage ends with a 13.6-kilometer climb to Hautacam, the resort overlooking Lourdes, with an average gradient of 7.8%.

It could suit Jonas Vingegaard, who in 2022 increased his lead over Pogacar at Hautacam on his way to his first Tour victory. Vingegaard is fourth in the GC rankings, 1:46 behind Healy.

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The pack rides past a field of sunflowers during the eleventh stage of the Tour de France cycling race over 156.8 kilometers (97.4 miles) with start and finish in Toulouse, France, Wednesday, July 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Mosa'ab Elshamy)

A fan holds a flag of Norway during the eleventh stage of the Tour de France cycling race over 156.8 kilometers (97.4 miles) with start and finish in Toulouse, France, Wednesday, July 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Mosa'ab Elshamy)

Slovenia's Tadej Pogacar leaves after the eleventh stage of the Tour de France cycling race over 156.8 kilometers (97.4 miles) with start and finish in Toulouse, France, Wednesday, July 16, 2025. (Christophe Petit Tesson, Pool via AP)

Norway's Jonas Abrahamsen celebrates as he crosses the finish line to win the eleventh stage of the Tour de France cycling race over 156.8 kilometers (97.4 miles) with start and finish in Toulouse, France, Wednesday, July 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)

Norway's Jonas Abrahamsen, left, celebrates as he crosses the finish line to win the eleventh stage of the Tour de France cycling race over 156.8 kilometers (97.4 miles) with start and finish in Toulouse, France, Wednesday, July 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)

NEW YORK (AP) — Hunched over a sewing machine, Kil Bae is hemming a dress inside his Manhattan tailor shop when a new customer stops by with a vintage Tommy Hilfiger jacket he wants taken in.

The modeling agent paid $20 at a thrift store for his reversible bomber style that's plaid on one side and red on the other. He's willing to spend $280 to have it slimmed down. Alteration requests with such a price disparity would have seemed odd a few years ago, the tailor says, but are helping to keep the bobbins bobbing at his one-man shop, 85 Custom Tailor.

Bae carefully examines the cotton jacket before moving in to pin it, circling the customer like a sculptor with a chisel. He started training as a tailor at age 17, in his native South Korea. Now 63, he's part of a shrinking breed in the U.S., where professional sewers, dressmakers and tailors are aging out of the workforce as their services find fresh demand.

Shoppers who grew up on disposable fast fashion are enlisting tailors and seamstresses to give off-the-rack purchases a custom fit or personal flair, to revive secondhand finds or to extend the lives of their wardrobes, according to fashion industry experts. Weight-loss drugs like Zepbound and Wegovy mean more Americans are seeking adjusted waistbands, tapered sleeves and other types of resizing, Bae said.

“I recommend this job to young people because this one cannot be AI’d,” Bae said, noting artificial intelligence is automating pattern making but so far can't replicate a tailor's handiwork. “Different bodies. Different shape. They cannot copy like this. If I close this door, I can go out and find another one.”

But like engraving, repairing musical instruments and many other skilled trades, creating and fitting garments to individual specifications hasn't attracted enough entry-level workers over the years to replace the professionals retiring their pincushions after decades of performing their craft.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimated almost two years ago there were fewer than 17,000 tailors, custom sewers and dressmakers working in business establishments nationwide, a 30% decline from a decade earlier.

Including self-employed individuals and people working in private households, the median age for all sewers, dressmakers and tailors was 54 last year, 12 years older than the median for the entire employed population, according to the bureau.

The income that a proficiency with needle and thread commands relative to the skills needed and the physical toll of bending over detailed work for hours likely discourages teenagers and young adults from heeding Bae's advice, fashion industry experts said.

The mean annual wage tailors, dressmakers and custom sewers earned as of May 2024 was $44,050 a year, compared to $68,000 for all workers, according to BLS calculations.

“Most of fashion training is really aimed at mass production, not spending time in a shop handmaking a garment,” said Scott Carnz, the provost of LIM College, a for-profit college that offers degrees in disciplines from the business side of fashion. “The work is also tedious.”

Online job postings for tailors, dressmakers and sewers have remained fairly stable, according to Cory Stahle, an economist with the research arm of jobs site Indeed. Between February 2020 and the end of the same month this year, advertised openings decreased by roughly 2%, while postings for both marketing and software jobs declined by nearly 30%, he said.

“There is a kind of a craftsmanship ... that I think is an important piece that we can’t ignore,” Stahle, who focuses on the U.S. labor market, said.

Immigrants with and without permanent legal status, refugees and naturalized citizens have powered America's garment industry for well over a century.

An analysis of recent census data by the Migration Policy Institute found about 40% of tailors, dressmakers and sewers were foreign-born, according to Julia Gelatt, associate director of the nonpartisan think tank's U.S. Immigration Policy Program. The biggest shares came from Mexico, South Korea, Vietnam and China, she said.

To address a worsening labor shortage, the fashion industry is looking to create a new generation of master tailors.

Nordstrom, North America’s largest employer of tailors and alteration specialists, teamed up with New York's Fashion Institute of Technology to launch a nine-week program in advanced sewing and alteration techniques.

“Customarily, tailoring has never been part of the American skill set,” said FIT instructor and Broadway costume builder Michael Harrell, who teaches the course.

The fashion institute received 200 applications for the inaugural cohort of 15 students, who started in October and received certificates of completion in February, said Jacqueline Jenkins, the executive director of the school's Center for Continuing and Professional Studies.

The hands-on training was designed to prepare participants to work at Nordstrom. The luxury department store chain employs 1,500 people to provide tailoring and alternations, from hemming jeans and repairing rips to fitting suits and reworking evening gowns.

Ten members of the first class were hired or are in the process of being hired, Marco Esquivel, Nordstrom’s director of alterations, said.

“We owe it to the broader industry to ensure that this is an art form that exists for years and years to come and continues to serve customers both within our walls as well as outside,” Esquivel said.

Meanwhile, other retailers are expanding their tailoring services because of demand.

Brooks Brothers, a luxury brand that has made custom men’s clothes since the 1800s, tested a similar service for women at five stores last year. This year, it expanded bespoke women's tailoring to 40 more stores. Prices start at $165 for shirts and $1,398 for suits, the company said.

Back at 85 Custom Tailor, Bae asked more than once if the customer with the Tommy Hilfiger jacket was certain he wanted to proceed with the alterations. Jonathan Reiss, 33, was sure. He said he planned to wear the jacket often.

“I think I fell victim to buying cheap stuff, and then you realize it just falls apart or shrinks or it just doesn’t last long,” Reiss said.

Bae has a son who's a year older than Reiss. He tried to persuade him to go into tailoring. The son used to work with computers and then opened a bagel shop.

“Young people. They just want to find a job in computers,” Bae said. “I think that’s too boring. I think this is very interesting. Every time, I am drawing in my head. I am like an artist.”

Bae trained under his older sister and brother at their custom apparel shop about 93 miles (150 kilometers) from Seoul. After five years, he moved to South Korea's capital to work on custom orders and samples for various companies. He moved to the New York City area, where he worked as a pattern maker for Ralph Lauren, Donna Karan and other designer brands.

He opened his own shop in Connecticut in 2011, but the COVID-19 pandemic forced him to close after a decade. He reopened in his current location a year later.

He uses three different sewing machines: a basic one, another for for heavy materials like denim and leather, and an overlock machine, which cuts, trims, and finishes fabric edges simultaneously.

Bae said he intends to keep working as long as his hands stay steady enough.

“I'm always learning,” he said.

Tailor Marco Lema, 35, of Ecuador, works on an embroidered shirt at Nordstrom headquarters in New York, Monday, March 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Eduardo Munoz Alvarez)

Tailor Marco Lema, 35, of Ecuador, measures a denim alteration at Nordstrom headquarters in New York, Monday, March 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Eduardo Munoz Alvarez)

Tailor Marco Lema, 35, of Ecuador, works on a denim alteration at Nordstrom headquarters in New York, Monday, March 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Eduardo Munoz Alvarez)

Tailor, Kil Bae, works inside his shop on Friday, March 27, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Andres Kudacki)

Tailor, Kil Bae, works inside his shop on Friday, March 27, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Andres Kudacki)

Tailor, Kil Bae, poses for a photo inside his shop on Friday, March 27, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Andres Kudacki)